WEST PINES PLAYERS EXCEL AT ODP TRIALS

8/25/08

1995 BOYS

The Region 111 Olympic Development Program’s (ODP) Trials for boys born in 1995 was recently held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Over a five day period of intensive training and games, boys from across the Southeastern United States competed for a spot on the 26-player roster of the U.S. National U-14 player pool. At the conclusion of the trials only four boys were selected from the Region, two of whom were members of West Pines United’s rising U-13 squad.

Receiving the ultimate compliment bestowed on a youth player, goalkeeper Joseph Ghitis was openly compared to the young Kasey Keller, who would become the Nation’s greatest goalkeeping legend as an adult. The comparison came from no other than Mr. Keller’s former national youth coach.

Though no comparison was made to his famous Brazilian namesake, Romario Bernard also caught the attention of the National coaches. The crafty mid-fielder displayed the form that had helped to propel his West Pines U-12 team to the Triple Crown during the 2007-08 season when the Richard Jobson coached team took home the League, Regional and President’s Cup titles.

Both Joseph and Romario were selected to the National pool and will be attending the U.S. Soccer National U-14 Identification Camp in Boston, Massachusetts from August 3-9, along with players chosen from across the country.

Six other members of that WPU team also attracted the attention of National and Regional coaches. Joshua Castellanos and Bryan Gonzalez were two of only seven players selected as alternates to the National pool and Joshua Creighton, Martin Taylor, Alex Morotta and Darien Rios all received invitations to attend the ODP Southern Regional Trials to be held shortly.

The success of these players has served to inspire the younger members of their WPU team, those born in 1996, to emulate the performance of their teammates when participating in their own age group trials in the coming months ahead.